Hello, I purchased my first home in June this year, and am currently building a dog run. One of my neighbors graciously had a fence built when I moved in, which runs along the side of our house. I will attach pictures later. I essentially have a 25-30 foot long x 6(maybe 6.5) feet wide between my house and my neighbors fence. My plan is to build a 6 foot tall fence that is plush with their fence at the back, and then place a gate immediatly to the right of my deck so that I could just walk out a few feet, open the gate, and go back inside.

I have a couple questions about this project, since I am a total DIY virgin and even the most logical step I would likely mess up on. I was going to use 4 4x4's for the setup originally, and am going to hand dig the holes due to 4 holes didn't seem worth renting an auger for (I am planning on doing the rest of my fence in the fall). So I live in Calgary Alberta where it hits up to --40 in the winters, I was told they needed to be 3 to 4 feet deep in the ground, I have managed to get them about 30 inches, but it is ridicolously hard going any further.

For the posts that are near my house, one was fine to dig as it was next to my deck and not the foundtain, however, the other hole was filled with tons of rocks and was essentialyl impossible to dig by hand. I purchased a large metal spike to support a 4x4, as this should get rid of that problem as well as prevent any future basement floods. My plan was to build a 3-4 foot high gate, with a 6 foot fence.

For the gate, I was planning on attaching the gate to the 4x4 near my neighbors fence, and then placing the hinge on the post near my deck. However, this would of course be an almost 6 foot wide gate, and I am not sure if this would be structurally okay, or if I should do the gate differently.

So right now I walk out my backdoor onto my deck which is about 10 feet long with rails on the right hand side, and steps straight ahead.
Another idea that I thought of that is hard to describe without pictures, would involve essentially tearing down part of the rails on the right hand side, and placing steps that would lead to the dog run. Therefore instead of a 3-4x6 foot gate, I would have a 6x6 fence on both sides, and a small gate immediatly to the right of the back door leading to the new steps that I would build.

So, what do you guys think? I will post pictures when i get home in an hour.